Friday, September 21, 2007

"Digabilities": Essential "Abilities" for Thriving in The Digital Age

I've been watching this short interview with Bob Garfield of Advertising Age over and over again. I didn't want to take everything he said at face value. And I felt he over simplified some things by stressing the importance of "blogger outreach" which I think as a solution isn't always the right one.

But something kept drawing me back to this video. And after watching it for like the 10th time it hit me. Do most Ad agencies see digital as a merely another channel or a way of life? I wonder if it's that simple? Has the modern agency re-tooled the "advertising factory" enough to truly thrive in the digital age? This is something I've been chewing on a bit.

So with this "inspiration" fresh on my mind—I put together a set of 12 "Digabilities": Essential "Abilities" for Thriving in The Digital Age. It's a work in progress and I published the entire list on the Critical Mass blog (another work in progress). You can read the entire piece there. Here's a snippet:

"6. Talkability
In the digital age customers get to talk back. Monologue dies while
dialogue thrives. Customers demand to have a say, and want to hear back
from the brands they empower. Conversation rules—dictation slowly
erodes away. If you want to get customers talking about you—talk with
them and help facilitate how they can better talk to each other.

7. Listenability
While the digital age empowers consumers with new tools and
technologies to converse and connect—marketers are empowered to listen.
There are more ways than ever to hear the customer out, listen to what
they are saying—and discover the patterns. In the digital age listening becomes more important than talking. Understanding replaces mass-market communications and relationships take the place of messages.

8. Usability
In the digital age we witness an abundance of complexity and a scarcity
of simplicity. Features lead to frustration and options paralyze. The
demand to humanize technology reaches critical mass—usability becomes a key differentiator as consumers cry out for the conversion of complex to simple."